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Phase 2a Committee Hearings Start Next Week

The HS2 Phase 2a Select Committee has announced when it will start, and what it sees as the major issues it will have to consider in this email:

The Select Committee will begin its public sessions on Monday 19 March at 3.00 pm, and has agreed the overall approach it plans to take on the programming of petitioners.The Committee’s hearings will begin with the Promoter’s opening statement setting out the case for the scheme. This will be followed by route familiarisation, and then a series of teach-in sessions on the control of environmental impacts, ecology, tunnels, traffic, compensation and noise. Copies of the presentations will be published online in advance.The Committee will then programme petitioners according to the following overarching order:• Right to appear challenges (the Promoter is expected to contact those petitioners it intends to challenge shortly)• Major in-principle cases:1. Whitmore Heath-Madeley tunnel proposal2. The proposed Aldersey’s Rough alternative to the Stone Infrastructure Maintenance Base-Railhead3. King’s Bromley viaduct lowering• Route-wide agricultural and rural issues• Main petition hearings (running south to north)• Compulsory acquisition cases• Others (including multi-site organisations and utilities)Hearings with petitioners are expected to run from when the House returns after Easter (week commencing 16 April) and are expected to finish by 20 July. The Committee will make regular announcements on the week-by-week programme of petitioners as they are scheduled.All meetings will take place in Committee Room 5 in the Palace of Westminster. The hearings will be open to the public, and will also be viewable online at http://parliamentlive.tv/Commons